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How Online Advertising with Google Might Change in 2014

Advertisers in 2013 had very mixed feelings about transitioning to Google’s Enhanced AdWords Campaigns, even with the endless supply of informative material provided. While Google has already been advertising on mobile for years now, other companies are quickly getting on board as the advertising trend continues to move towards mobile platforms.

Below are several detailed examples of how online advertising with Google will continue to grow and change in 2014:

Google itself is steadily growing Android into the Windows of the mobile world, with the mobile OS appearing now on a vast majority of the smartphones shipped throughout the world. Though the freedom of Android has enabled the software to proliferate, it could also mean that companies use the OS to support their own marketing. Amazon’s Kindle Fire devices are a perfect example of this, with Amazon going so far as to sell ad space on users’ lock screens. For the most part, though, Google Play and Google Search are front-and-center in the Android experience.Apple, of course, is still a leading mobile advertiser that takes a major chunk of global ad revenues each quarter. Confident in its mobile success, Apple is rumored to be moving into Google’s search territory as more and more of the world’s searches are performed on Apple’s mobile devices. Signs point to the company soon diving into search, possibly with its own mobile search platform.

Samsung also forged ahead with its mobile ad strategy, though its time may have to wait until it can challenge Android’s mobile supremacy with its Tizen OS, which reportedly won’t happen any time soon.

YouTube is still a prominent ad platform for Google, and the site featured more and a larger variety of ads than ever in 2013. Traditional advertisers have certainly come around on YouTube as a legitimate platform for video advertising as Google has taken great strides to accommodate traditional content holders with its shoot-first policy on copyright offenses. YouTube viewers and advertisers can look forward to even more ads in 2014, along with expanded video content offerings.

So that’s where online advertising stands for Google at the close of 2013. The trifecta of search, mobile, and social is a lucrative one for advertisers, and Google in particular. With search practically locked-up and the mobile and social realms quickly becoming saturated, however, strong future ad growth will need to rely on something new.

A new report out this week suggests that Google may soon shift its TV strategy more toward its Android platform. Though Google TV can arguably be called a flop, the company’s recently-released Chromecast appears to be a genuine hit. The inexpensive USB/HDMI dongle seems to have finally connected the TV and second-screen devices in a way that resonates with customers.

Google’s quick shutdown of a local video streaming app for the Chromecast shows that Google has big plans for the device, and those plans include keeping Chromecast content securely gated. This could suggest that Chromecast is being groomed as a platform for both banner and video ads – a merger of web and mobile advertising that would seem to flow straight from Google’s current initiatives.

With more content available to stream through services such as Netflix and Hulu, the way that consumers watch television is changing rapidly. Though manufacturers have tried to get ahead of the market in the past few years with set-top boxes, video game consoles, and smart TVs, it could be Google’s small Chromecast dongle that brings streaming video (and ads) to consumer living rooms. That would certainly represent a huge opportunity for both Google and advertisers – and it could begin happening as early as next year.

Have the changes with Google Ads affected you and your business negatively or positively?